CHAPTER 662: [656] QING CHUAN CHENG WANGFEI 25 (2 MORE UPDATES)

As the sound drew closer, a series of shadows that felt like a nightmare appeared; they were not humans but a Zombie horde made up of eunuchs and palace maids. It seemed as though they had detected the scent of a living person and were wandering her way. At a glance, there were surprisingly as many as twenty individuals, with the palace maids numbering slightly more.

However, compared to the Zombies outside, the movement and behavior of these Undead were slower.

At the end of the group, she also spotted a few Taoist priests.

Was it still daytime outside? But because it was dark and damp here, were they unaffected by the transition from day to night?

As these ghostly things approached her, she flashed into her space and waited for them to pass. Once they had left, she jumped back out and, to ensure there were no lingering threats, she had no choice but to use the close-quarters combat skills she had trained in her past life. Although the long sword was somewhat heavy, these creatures were much slower in their reactions compared to those outside, giving her enough time to slaughter them all.

Using the dodging capability of her space, she spent most of the day dealing with all twenty or thirty of them.

No more noises followed, suggesting that she had dealt with all the spectral things here.

Disregarding the dirt on her, she cautiously walked forward with sword in hand. Turning past this long and gloomy corridor, the scene before her was breathtaking.

Straight ahead was an enormous Pill Furnace, and to its sides were individual compartments, each containing a smaller pill furnace. She thought this was all there was, so when she reached the end, she discovered stairs leading underground.

There was no door to this staircase; it led straight down. She descended holding a torch and found a medicinal materials storeroom on the second sub-level. Yes, it was all medicinal materials, densely packed shelves full of them. Here, she didn’t sense any movement.

Further on, she found the last level, where she saw human and animal specimens and many corpses in various states of decay. In other words, was this the primary crime scene?

In the animal cages, there were still living rats and snakes, except their eyes had already turned gray—meaning they were dead.

Although she couldn’t determine whether the riot here started first or if the guard getting bitten was the initial catalyst, either way confirmed that, in an attempt to concoct those so-called elixirs, they had actually experimented on living people. No wonder Yun Mi had previously mentioned that eunuchs and palace maids often mysteriously disappeared at Yuanming Garden. Among those dead bodies and specimens, she also saw the guards, which meant the number of missing individuals was more than they had imagined.

In an instant, her favorable impression of Yong Zheng plummeted, and thinking of his fate, she cursed inwardly, "Serves him right."

She had no interest in the human specimens and the pill furnaces, but the wealth of medicinal materials and books that filled the entire second sub-level was a rare find.

So, she unapologetically gathered them into her space.

Afterward, she discovered a secret passage on this second level, where she was astonished to find the gold and silver jewelry that the Taoists had been hiding for years.

Oh my goodness, each treasure was encased in exquisite red boxes made of top-quality nanmu wood—she had struck it rich.

This made her feel that enduring the hardship of her journey was worth it.

After dealing with these matters, she left the secret passage, stealthily made her way out of the bamboo forest, found a secluded spot to enter her space, and transported the bodies she had taken from there to the outside. Then, she waited without daring to eat, fearing that looking too healthy might arouse suspicion.

As soon as a guard passed by on patrol, she immediately cried out weakly for help, and then she was rescued by these people.

When she "came to" later, Yun Mi was staring at her unblinkingly with red eyes; she had not slept well for the past two days, so she was somewhat lucid when she was carried back. However, once she lay down on the bed, she fell asleep. Later, when the Imperial Physician came and Yun Mi returned, she knew nothing about it, so her awakening now couldn’t really be considered coming out of a coma.

"Are you awake? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

His expression was haggard, and his unshaven beard, from lack of care, grew out; his eyes were even bloodshot, all of which showed the tremendous stress he had been under these past three days. His hoarse voice truly made her feel guilty.

"I’m sorry, I just wanted to go out and dig up some wild vegetables. I had no idea that there were still Undead in Yuanming Garden..."

It was as if she remembered something terrifying and kept shaking her head while holding it in her hands.

She dared not say the rest of her thoughts aloud. Saying more would lead to too many slip-ups; every time they asked, she would just stretch out her hands in terror, claiming to have killed someone...

Seeing her like this, and remembering what the guards had said about finding a few corpses nearby when they discovered her, Yun Mi thought about what kind of desperate circumstances would have forced such a delicate young lady to take action. Naturally, he felt so much pity for her that he dared not ask any further but only admonished her.

"Don’t ever go out alone again; thankfully, you’re all right"

After this fright, she stayed calm for several days, tallying up the money in her "space." Just the gold and Silver Ingots added up to an amount of twenty thousand taels, not to mention the gold and silver jewelry, paintings, and antiques which were simply incalculable.

Right, there were also those medicinal materials. Even if she opened a medicinal herbs shop, it would be enough to sell for two or three years. She struck it rich! Her efforts weren’t wasted even with the pain of hitting her head with a rock.

She had been comfortable in Yuanming Garden, but the Emperor, that old fellow, took his harem and returned to Yuanming Garden. The reason was simple: the situation in Beijing was becoming increasingly horrific with each passing day. Despite burning corpses every day, there would be unfortunate souls that got infected at night.

Luckily, they still had a chance to catch their breath during the day; otherwise, the entire Daqing might have perished.

"There are still people who dare to go out at night now?"

Yun Mi scoffed coldly, "There are always those who aren’t afraid of dying who come out, but we still don’t know the method of transmission. Judging by the bites on their bodies, rats are another vector of transmission apart from person-to-person. Beijing is so vast; it’s probably difficult to eradicate completely."

"Hasn’t the Emperor called for the Imperial Hospital and the doctors among the common folk to work together to study how to treat this disease?"

When she had free time these days, she would refer to some documents left in the secret chamber to research the virus’s composition. But after all, there was no advanced medical technology here like in the future; it was impossible to analyze the strange things contained in those blood samples. Even though she was a "medicine," her status still affected her ability to participate in the research. This wasn’t something that could be clearly explained by disappearing for just two or three days. She could only hope to suggest using her blood as a medicine when they started to make some progress in their research. But given the current situation, that seemed far off.

"There are some, but they don’t know where to start. We need to find those Taoists. Now, checkpoints have been set up everywhere in an attempt to intercept them; we don’t know if it will work or not. We just have to wait,"

Xiyuan thought for a moment, "I should go back to my estate. I’ll return tomorrow morning!"

Originally, she came here for some peace and quiet, but now with the Emperor and the concubines here, staying became pointless. It was not free, and she would rather be at her own place, where she could grow vegetables and live a pastoral life.